The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Social security reforms achieved "none of their planned outcomes", with just 27 percent of targeted Bahamian households receiving cash grants under an IDB-financed initiative.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in an evaluation report on its Bahamas projects between 2010 and 2017, revealed that woeful project management and execution was the main reason for the failure of its $7.5m "Social Safety Net Reform Programme".

Some $3.4m, or 43.3 percent, of the total loan amount was cancelled after it became clear that the project - designed to consolidate existing anti-poverty efforts into a "Conditional Cash Transfer" (CCT) initiative - was doomed to failure. Less than 50 percent of the targeted 12,000 families were enrolled in it.

"There is some evidence that the programme's design was weak," the IDB found. "Although the social protection operation had all the elements of the bank's preferred technical thinking on CCTs, it lacked practical thinking about what was possible in The Bahamas given the political economy issues surrounding the necessary challenging reforms.

"The Social Safety Net Reform Programme did not achieve any of its planned outcomes. The rotation of senior staff (including three permanent secretaries) and limited initial oversight by the Ministry of Finance further conspired against developing a deep institutional sense of ownership of the reforms and commitment to their execution.

"Insufficient expertise and slow decision-making led to significant procurement delays (of up to two years), the withdrawal of qualified candidates from multiple consultancies, and retendering."

The IDB report, though, identified the sub-standard performance of the government's Project Implementation Unit (PIU) as the main factor behind the demise of an initiative designed to overhaul the Bahamas' welfare system by targeting resources to those most in need while also linking benefit payments to activities designed to help lift recipients out of poverty.

"Despite the Bank's significant investment of money and time in loan supervision, project management support and consultant resources (including external procurement support), the PIU's (project implementation unit) performance remained low," the IDB review blasted.

"In 2016, the Ministry of Finance assigned two people to oversee the project and help the PIU with planning and logistics. A new timeline was prepared with targets, but the PIU did not follow the plan. In August 2017, the balance of $3.4 million in undisbursed loan financing was cancelled and the project was closed." Some $4.1 million had already been spent.

The fate of the $7.5 million Social Safety Net Reform initiative had, following the 2017 general election, become a political sparring match between then-social services minister, Lanesha Rolle, and her predecessor, Melanie Griffin. The IDB report appears to back some of the former's criticisms.

Yet it suggests that the initiative was not a total loss, revealing that it established systems and obtained data that could be used to underpin its revival - or a similar effort - in the future.

"The loan did achieve five of 12 output targets," the IDB review said. "These include the mobilisation of expert technical assistance to support the design and targeting of the CCT component; the implementation of a public information campaign to promote the new programme; (the introduction of a new payment system to enhance the flexibility of the CCT stipend; the completion of the household expenditure survey; and the design and installation of an MIS (Management Information System) to facilitate programme management."

The report added: "According to the most recent Project Monitoring Report (September 2017), just 81 of 300 planned households received cash grants under the programme, and 5,803 of 12,000 households were enrolled under the programme and incorporated in the Beneficiary Management Information System (MIS).

"While the sustainability of these programmes is unknown - and, indeed, could even be at risk since they are not grounded in legislation - the proxy means test, household survey data, and MIS system developed for the loan remain important tools that can be used in the future to bring technology and improved efficiency to the management of social programmes."

CCTs are welfare/benefit payments linked to their recipients meeting certain conditions in advance, such as ensuring their children regularly go to school and maintain healthy lifestyles. Introducing such a system, together with improved benefit targeting and better plan administration/information, were among the key goals behind the failed IDB effort.